TBT: Recollections of a High School Conselor : Life is Beautiful

This morning a teacher approached me as I was walking to my office. She was smiling ear to ear. “Congratulations on your retirement” she said, “How exciting to be retiring. Are you nervous?” Not ten minutes later another employee came by my office and pretty much said the same thing. My answer to both was the same. I assured them that I was definitely getting exited but not really nervous, at least not yet. They both seemed a bit surprised and said they’e be extremely nervous if they were in my position. Oh well.

With just 17 days of work left you’d probably think that I’d be nervous or extremely busy planning for this new stage of my life journey but you’d be wrong. In fact as retirement draws closer I’m actually beginning to be filled with a sense of calm about the whole thing. Sounds weird I know because I was pretty nervous a few weeks ago, but the closer it gets the better I feel about it. As for planning at this point about the only thing we’re planning on is a nice Hawaiian getaway in November for our 40th anniversary but that was in the works long before retirement became a reality. Other than that we plan on taking things day by day. Truth be told I think we’ve all lived long enough to know that Life is one crazy journey, we never know what tomorrow has in store for us and there are no guarantees, so we’re just going to sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts…

If I had to give an answer as to what my plans are for retirement I’d have to say: I plan to live a little everyday, learn a life lesson along the way, laugh a little at the games people play and love everyone and everything a lot! That it, plain and simple. I plan on doing what I love and doing it often. I want to stop getting hung up on the words or actions of others, stop over-analyzing and just let things go. I want my passion to be my guide, do some traveling, be creative and live my dream! Wow! guess I’ll have to watch a lot less TV once I retire!

The way I see it, retirement will be whatever my wife and I want it to be. Besides, by this point in our lives we should all know that the best things in life, the things that really matter are free. And what matters most is family and friends, love, hugs and kisses, smiles, giggles and laughter, the rising and setting of the sun, moonlit nights, music, the ocean, the wind , trees, the sound of silence, the list goes on and on. I want to learn to appreciate each and every waking moment of my retirement and dream sweet dreams each night. Life is beautiful…